Lovepedal Woodrow (Electra Distortion)

Today we’re going to look at a Tweed-amp-in-a-box pedal called the Lovepedal Woodrow. It’s based off of the Electra Distortion circuit, which you can see below.

As you can see, it’s a simple one transistor design that uses two diodes for clipping. The original circuit calls for a silicon 1N4148 diode and a germanium 1N34A diode. But as you all may know there are countless options for clipping diodes, and this is a great circuit to experiment with (Once again, sockets are your friend). And here’s the vero layout I used.

Socket those diodes!

The Lovepedal Woodrow is one of the many Lovepedal designs based off of the Electra circuit, but has several component changes. It was designed to emulate the tone of a cranked Fender 5E3 Tweed Deluxe amp. While I don’t think the pedal matches that description accurately, it does have some tweedy characteristics and is a great OD pedal that works with your amp to get that ragged glorious tweed tone.

Anyways, back to diodes. By adding sockets to the veroboard changing diodes is a snap. I tried out 1N914 (1N4148 is very similar) silicons, BAT 46 schottky, 1N4001 rectifier, 1N60 and 1N34A germaniums, and several different types of LEDs.

Some of the diodes used in my Lovepedal Woodrow

After spending an afternoon testing out diodes and watching hockey I decided that I preferred a silicon germanium combo (1N914 and 1N34A) and that BAT46 and LEDs really do not mesh with this circuit. It’s funny how the pedal took around 90 minutes to build and I spent far more time tweaking it with different diodes. Here’s a gutshot for those interested.

It’s a nice clean build that would even fit into a 1590A enclosure. Finally, for the graphics and pedal design I wanted to keep it clean and nice and tidy (much like the insides!) Using my high tech paint studio (unheated garage and rattle cans) I used silver hammertone paint. Originally I planned on using a graphic of Gordie Howe from the Simpsons (internet high five if you get the reference) but alas I finally decided on just adding my name at the bottom. A stupidly bright blue LED completes the pedal. As for naming it I think the Woody Laboratories Woody would be a little bit odd, so we’ll just call it Tweed.

Hey Sachin,
Thanks for the nice words. I actually still have a 0.1uf Capacitor in my pedal. It’s the small white box just above the diodes connected the collector of the transistor and the diodes/output pot. I imagine changing it’s value would affect the bass response of the pedal. I like the stock 0.1uf, the 47uf cap is there for power filtering reasons I believe.
If you really want to change the distortion sound of the unit I’d start by experimenting with different diodes. There are countless possibilities that will give you different sounds. Use sockets so you won’t have to solder/resolder everytime you want to switch it up. I’ve gotten in the habit of socketing diodes/transistors/input caps on most of my personal builds so I can easily experiment with different values.

Thanks .
I am going to build this one now, all pumped up .
And can you post more pedals, so that i can make them. xDD
Also need your advice,,
I built a Thing-a-ma-bob pedal build it has too much humming sound, any way to remove it, i’ll post the picture soon, i dont have the pic right now.

Heyhey.
I’ll be doing some more builds in the near future. I’m currently working 2 jobs, and live by the beach, so it’s going to be a busy summer :-)
The thing-a-ma-bob was actually the first pedal I ever built. If you’re getting hum from it I’d imagine something is not grounded properly. Check all your grounds to make sure they are properly connected.

I have all of this right here but the diodes and curious if I just used any diodes it’d work. Obviously it’d sound different, but I’m still unsure as to how diode values’ work. Currently available are in4005,-2,-7,-4, and -1.

Any of the 1N400X diodes should work. It won’t sound the same as using silicon or germanium diodes, but you may like it! If you have some sockets kicking around solder those in and then you can easily swap out diodes. Don’t forget to try LEDs as well!